Dreams of the Beyond in the Abyss is on display in Niimi, Okayama Prefecture.
Festival art director Yuko Hasegawa, third from left, and others cut the ribbon Saturday during an opening ceremony in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture.
20:00 JST, September 29, 2024
TSUYAMA/NIIMI, Okayama – The Okayama Forest Festival of the Arts kicked off Saturday in 12 cities and towns in the northern prefecture of Okayama.
It is the first time that the festival is being held.
It showcases a diverse range of artworks created by 43 artists from 12 countries and regions, attracting enthusiastic visitors from within and outside the prefecture.
The opening ceremony was held at the nationally renowned Shurakuen Garden in Tsuyama in front of approximately 100 attendees, including those involved in the festival. Art director of the festival Yuko Hasegawa, director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the start of the event.
“With the collaboration of locals and artists, we have created exhibitions that bring out the beauty of each location. I hope visitors discover something new and fall in love with both the places and themselves,” Hasegawa said in an interview with the press.
One of the exhibitions is Dreams of the Beyond in the Abyss, an immersive art experience displayed in Makido Cave, a limestone cave in Niimi. It was created by photographer and filmmaker Mika Ninagawa and her creative team. Visitors entering the cave are greeted by a blue-lit space. A narrow path ahead is bathed in red light and leads to a pond decorated with about 1,000 artificial spider lilies. In the silence, the sound of falling drops adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the cave.
The festival runs until November 24.
